Long overshadowed by his parents and heir to one of Bangladesh’s most powerful political dynasties, Tarique Rahman has finally stepped into the spotlight.

At 60, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader is preparing to take charge of the South Asian nation of 170 million, driven by what he calls an ambition to “do better”.

A year and a half after the deadly uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s iron-fisted regime, the BNP said they had won a “sweeping victory” in parliamentary elections held on Thursday.

Official results are yet to be declared, but the United States offered congratulations to Rahman on a “historic” win.

His rise marks a remarkable turnaround for a man who only returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in exile in Britain, far from Dhaka’s political storms.

Widely known as Tarique Zia, he carries a political name that has shaped every stage of his life.

He was 15 when his father, President Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in 1981.

Tarique’s mother, Khaleda Zia — a three-time prime minister and a towering figure in Bangladeshi politics for decades — died aged 80 in December, just days after his return home.

‘My country’

Speaking to AFP two days before the vote, Rahman vowed to build on their legacy.

“They are them, I am me,” he said from his office, beneath gold-framed portraits of his late parents. “I will try to do better than them.”

He described the “mixed feelings” that overwhelmed him when he arrived home in December — the joy of returning, swiftly eclipsed by grief at his mother’s death.

“This is my country, I was born here, I was raised here — so naturally, that was a very happy feeling,” he said.

Instead of celebrating, however, he had to bid farewell to his ailing mother, who had long been in intensive care.

“When you come home after so long, any son wants to hug his mother,” he said. “I didn’t have that chance.”

Within days of landing in Dhaka, he assumed leadership of the BNP and its election campaign.

The still grieving heir took to the stage, microphone in hand, rallying vast crowds.

‘Unnerves many’

His father, Ziaur Rahman, an army commander, gained influence months after a 1975 coup when founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — Sheikh Hasina’s father — was murdered.

It entrenched a rivalry between the two families that would define the country’s politics for decades. Ziaur Rahman himself was killed in 1981.

Rahman grew up in his mother’s political orbit as she went on to become the country’s first female prime minister, alternating power with Hasina in a long and bitter duel.

“In her seats, I used to go and I used to campaign,” Rahman said. “So this is how slowly and gradually I started getting involved in politics.”

But his career has also been shadowed by allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

A 2006 US embassy cable said he “inspires few but unnerves many”.

Other cables labelled him a “symbol of kleptocratic government and violent politics” and accused him of being “phenomenally corrupt”.

Arrested on corruption charges in 2007, Rahman says he was tortured in custody.

He fled to London the following year, where he faced multiple cases in absentia. He denied all charges and dismissed them as politically motivated.

But he also told AFP he offered an apology.

“If there are any mistakes which were unwanted, we are sorry for that,” he told AFP.

After Hasina’s fall, Rahman was acquitted of the most serious charge against him — a life sentence handed down in absentia for a 2004 grenade attack on a Hasina rally — which he had always denied.

Married to a cardiologist and father to a daughter, a lawyer, he led a quiet life in Britain.

That changed with his dramatic return and hero’s welcome in December, accompanied by his fluffy ginger cat, Jebu, images of which have gone viral on Bangladeshi social media.

He admits the task ahead is “immense”, rebuilding a country he says was “destroyed” by the former regime.

• Gupta enters plea before US magistrate in Manhattan federal court.
• Gupta has been jailed in Brooklyn since June 2024.
• Suspect pleaded guilty to three criminal charges.
  

An Indian man charged with orchestrating an unsuccessful Indian government-backed plot to kill a Sikh separatist in New York City pleaded guilty on Friday to three criminal charges, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said.

Nikhil Gupta, 54, pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carry a maximum combined sentence of 40 years in prison, the spokesperson said.

Gupta entered his plea before US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan federal court.

Lawyers for Gupta were not immediately available for comment. Gupta has been jailed in Brooklyn since his June 2024 extradition to the United States from the Czech Republic, where he had been arrested a year earlier. He had pleaded not guilty immediately after his extradition.

US prosecutors accused Gupta of plotting with an Indian government official to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US resident and dual US-Canadian citizen who advocated for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India.

India’s government has dissociated itself from any plot against Pannun, saying it was against government policy.

The discovery of alleged assassination plots against Sikh separatists in the United States and Canada has tested relations with India, which has also denied involvement in such plots.

• USS Gerald R Ford, escort ships to be sent to Middle East.
• Development comes after last week’s US-Iran talks in Oman.
• US already sent aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to Middle East.

The United States was preparing on Friday to deploy a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East after President Donald Trump warned of “traumatic” consequences if Tehran failed to agree a deal over its nuclear programme.

Tensions have escalated between Tehran and its traditional foe Washington following protests last month that rights groups say killed thousands.

Trump has made refraining from military action conditional on a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme, which the West fears is aimed at making a bomb.

“We have to make a deal, otherwise it’s going to be very traumatic, very traumatic. I don’t want that to happen, but we have to make a deal,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.

Trump had already sent one aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, to the Middle East in a warning to Tehran, and multiple US media outlets said a second carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, and its escort ships would also be sent to the region.

The vessels led by the Ford, currently deployed to the Caribbean, are not expected to return to their home ports until late April or early May, the New York Times said.

Representatives of Iran and the United States, who have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after the revolution, held talks on the nuclear programme last week in Oman.

While no dates have been set for new talks, there have been indications that Trump is upbeat about the prospects for a deal.

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu said after meeting Trump in Washington that the US leader believed he may clinch a “good deal”, though the Israeli prime minister himself expressed scepticism at the quality of any agreement if it didn’t also cover Iran’s ballistic missiles.

The United States joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

But there is no consensus on what Washington would target in new strikes or whether it would seek to slacken supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s grip on power.